Picture after Syrian raid

A tired, exultant, and 28-year-old Arik celebrates with his troops after the conclusion of a raid on Syria, 1 December 1956. This was the very end of the era of the reprisal raids, concluded to be a failure by many in the upper echelons of the Israeli government. Nonetheless, their tactics and spirit influenced countless special operations groups to this day, as well as the entire IDF.

Source: The Guardian, UK.

Opening scene, Unit 101

The following scene is loosely based on events occurring in Yahud, Israel in the early 1950s.

WOMAN'S ROOM - NIGHT

MOTHER

(reading to her daughter)

And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Eliahu went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, "My father! My father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" And he saw him no more.

DAUGHTER

Imah, will I go to heaven?

MOTHER

Of course you will, sweetie. When you're very very old and you want to rest.

DAUGHTER

In a whirlwind?

MOTHER

With the angels.

DAUGHTER

What is it like? In heaven?

MOTHER

You know Tanakh. What does it say?

DAUGHTER

The wolf shall lie down with the lamb.

MOTHER

Everyone is nice there, no one ever hurts anyone else. The prophets are there.

DAUGHTER

I don't want to go without you.

MOTHER

(kissing her)

I know, sweetie. Sleep.

The MOTHER turns the light out, then goes out of the room.

EXT. WOMAN'S HOUSE - NIGHT

Two MEN are sidling up to the outside of the kitchen window. The younger of the two, having seen the woman/daughter exchange, shakes his head at the other.

ALI

(looking in)

These are civilians.

MUSTAFA

(livid)

There are no civilians.

INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT

The WOMAN blows the Shabbat candle out.

EXT. KITCHEN - NIGHT

MUSTAFA grabs the grenade from ALI, pulls the pin, and throws it into the house. They both run as the entire house whoofs up in orange and yellow flame.

Photo by Gilad Benari

This photograph was taken by Gilad Benari in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Hebrew, cont'd.

At holekhet ba-regel? - are you going on foot? (f)
ha-koalot me-australia? - are koalas from Australia?
zot fiskia'it mi-sin - this is a physicist from China. (f)
hu ba me-ha-kibuts - he is coming from the kibbutz.
ha-professor yotse me-ha-bank - the professor leaves the bank.
peter kore sefer - Peter reads a book.
peter kore et ha-sefer - Peter reads the book.
etti shota shampaniya - Etti drinks champagne.
etti shota et ha-shampaniya mi-tsorfat - Etti drinks the champagne from France.
tse'irim ohavim et tel aviv - Young people like Tel Aviv.
robert ahav et clara - Robert loved Clara.
ilana lamda sinit be-paris - Ilana studied Chinse in Paris.
hu melamed filosofia ba-universita - he teaches philosphy at the university.

shulkhan yafe - beautiful table
shulkhanot yafim - beautiful tables

seret tov - a good movie
pitsa tova - a good pizza
musika'im tovim - good musicians
matok - sweet
metikut - sweetness
mahir - fast
mehirut - swiftness

yoter na'im, na'im yoter - more pleasant
hi yotser tse'ira mi-yarden - she's younger than Yarden.
be tel aviv, kham yoter me'asher bitsfat - in Tel Aviv, it's warmer than in Safed.
cristina yoter gvoha mimeni - Cristina is taller than me.
hamit yoter inteligenti mimkha - Hamit is smarter than you.
hastudent tipesh kmo kir - the student is as stupid as a wall.
ayala yafa kmo perakh - Ayala is as beautiful as a flower.
akhi khatikh kamokha - my brother is as handsome as you.
rakhel zkena kamoha - Rachel is as old as her.

Conjugations of mi:

mimeni - from me
mimkha - than/from you (m, s)
mimekh - than/from you (f, s)
mimenu - than/from him
mimena - than/from her
mimenu/me'itanu - than/from us
mikem - than/from you (m, p)
miken - than/from you (f, p)
mehem - than/from them (m)
mehen - than/from you (f)

Conjugation of kmo - like

Singular:

kamoni, kamokha, kamokh, kamoha, kamohu

Plural:

kamonu, kmokhem, kmokhen, kmohem, kmohen

Additional Hebrew

yosef okhel falafel - Joseph eats falafel.
yosef shamen - Joseph's fat.
yosef po - Joseph's here.
hame'il al hakise - the coat's on the chair.
hi mora - she's a teacher.
hastudentim re'evim - the students are hungry.
dina ayefa - Dina's tired.

studentit tova - good student (f)
hastudentit hatova - the good student (f)
hastudentit tova - the student is good (f)
falafel ta'im - tasty falafel
hafalafel hata'im - the tasty falafel
hafalafel ta'im - the falafel is tasty
hu holekh le-ulpan - he goes to an ulpan.
hu holekh la-ulpan - he goes to the ulpan.
hu okhel be-mis'ada - he eats at a restaurant.
hu okhel ba-mis'ada - he eats at the restaurant.
hu kotev mikhtav - he writes a letter.
hu kotev mikhtavim - he writes letters.

anakhnu holkhim la-miskhak hayom - we go to the match today.
ata nose'a li-tveria? - are you going to Tiberias? (m, s)
ha-cappuccino le-david - the cappuccino is for David.
ha-mikhtav le-john po - the letter for John is here.

he yoshevet be-mercedes - she sits in a Mercedes.
nifgashnu ba-opera - we met at the opera.
hem medabrim ba-telefon - they speak on the phone. (m)
hen medabrot be-Ivrit - they're speaking Hebrew. (f)

ani kotevet be-et Parker - I write with a Parker pen.

Additional Hebrew: camping

tarmil gav - backpack
medura - campfire
camping - camping
atar camping - campsite
potkhan kufsa'ot - can opener
matspen - compass
zradim - firewood
mekhal gas - gas cartridge
patish - hammer
arsal - hammock
makhtselet - mat
mizron - mattress
khevel - rope
sak shena - sleeping bag
ohel - tent
yetedot - tent pegs
panas - torch (flashlight)
meimiya - water bottle

Sharon, 17 years after the end of the reprisal raids

Arik, now a major general (he had the rank of captain as the commander of 101) pauses for a moment while studying maps with another general. Taken during the Yom Kippur War, October 1973.

Motive for forming the unit

The background for the formation of Unit 101 emerged in part from the low morale the officers and soldiers felt while serving in the IDF after the War of Independence. This is seen in this quote from a report Moshe Dayan presented while Deputy Commander-in-Chief:

"Despite the winnowing out of the good soldiers (to courses, to the professional corps), soldiers that were border-line cases with regard to discipline were posted to battalions, command headquarters or various military installations. Soldiers who smoked hashish, criminals and thieves ('graduates of the prisons'), pimps and the like were sometimes sent as reinforcements to battalions. The health classification given to soldiers before their recruitment changes within a short time after their recruitment. Within the first month of military service ten per cent of the soldiers manage to obtain low health classifications and are released from military duty or are transferred to other units. The health level of low-ranking officers is also low. The number of officers in infantry units is miniscule. There are almost no platoon commanders of officer rank. The length of stay of an officer in a unit is generally brief. The level of NCOs is low. The level of shooting in target practice is extremely poor...Given these facts, the units lack the capacity to become combat units. They remain only as units entered in an officially-listed ledger."

Source: Drory, Ze'ev. Israel's Reprisal Policy 1953-1956: The Dynamics of Military Retaliation. Frank Cass Military Studies, Oxon, UK. 2005.

2007 anti-terror raid, Kalkiliya

This is a video uploaded in 2007 of an anti-terror squad in Kalkiliya. This is the same village in the West Bank where Meir Har-Zion was shot in the neck in September 1956 while conducting a raid on a Jordanian police fortress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA8TMnoc5EI

Sharon's final word on Meir Har-Zion,1998

"Meir Har-Zion was not a sociable man. He was not made for lavish receptions, or good at public relations. He was a true fighter, the greatest fighter we have ever had. His activities were spread over a relatively short time period, but they left a strong impact on the IDF and on its soldiers for many years, for generations.

The Israeli nation is fortunate. Today, after fifty years of independence, the Israelis still can see with their own eyes that their hero Har is not a legend, but a flesh-and-blood man of the land - living up there in the heights of Kochav HaRuchot, his star of the winds."

Source: Bar-Zohar.

Gulliver before the Nebi Samuel raid

The Israeli Defense Force has a link to Unit 101's first official operation. See it here:

http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/about/History/50s/1953/default.htm

"The darkness in the mountains never falls, but rises. It comes up from the valleys and ravines, crawls along the mountain slopes like a winding snake, until it overpowers the sun. The greatest deeds are carried out at night. In the middle of the night God struck down every firstborn child in Egypt. The children of Israel left Egypt at night. Gideon and his boy went down at night and hit the enemies in the camp of Midian and Amalek. The night abounds with magic and splendor. It bestows upon its heroes legendary strength. I simply love the night."

Yitzhak "Gulliver" Ben-Menachem, on the eve of the Nebi Samuel raid

Source: Bar-Zohar, Michael. Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel.

Scene from Unit 101

This is a scene taken from Joel Redmond's Unit 101, WGA # 1372097. The scene is a direct adaptation of the actual interchange between Colonel Mishael Shaham and 25-year-old Ariel Scheinerman.

HEBREW UNIVERSITY - MOUNT SCOPUS - DAY

Hot sunny afternoon. A neatly dressed, handsome young student taking an exam taps his pen against his mouth.

TEACHER

Stop.

The student walks up to the teacher and hands in the paper, smiling. He is stopped by an ADJUTANT as he gets out of the door.

DOV

Major, Colonel Shaham needs to see you. ASAP, sir. (seeing him nod and salute, seeing him off)

The STUDENT walks down a narrow corridor, down a flight of stairs, and crosses over to an older-looking annex of the building he just left. All around him is the beauty of Jerusalem at the height of summer. He stops for a moment and closes his eyes, listening to the birds, smelling the flowers. Then he sighs, adjusts his backpack strap, and goes into the annex and up to the lecture hall door.

INT. LECTURE HALL

The door is open. At the foot of the lecture hall stairs is a wiry, silent man in his late thirties in full military dress. Before him spread out on the table are an assortment of wrinkled military maps and diagrams.

STUDENT

You wanted to see me, Colonel?

SHAHAM

Have you heard of Mustafa Samueli?

STUDENT

Yes. (seeing SHAHAM look at him) Lost his brother in 48. Swore to kill a hundred Jews for revenge.

SHAHAM

He's already killed four. One of them was a friend of mine, from Ramat Gan.

STUDENT
(sensing an assignment he doesn't really want)
You want me to retaliate.

SHAHAM

I need a deterrent. We have permission from Dayan himself. We have to get across the border and blow up his house, and I want you to do the job.

STUDENT

I still have two more finals -

SHAHAM

(waving his words off) A man has to choose between two options: studying the deeds of others, or leaving it to others to study his own deeds.

The STUDENT is silent.

Choose anyone you want for this. No more than a dozen men. Report back at 0800.

STUDENT

Yes sir.

Additional Hebrew

Ata (at)...? - Are you...?

mefakhed (et) - afraid
ko'es (et) - angry
kar li - cold
asir (at) toda - grateful
same'akh (smekha) - happy
kham li - hot
ani ra'ev (re'eva)
memaher (et) - in a hurry
met (a) le... - keen to...
atsuv (a) - sad
menumnam (menumnemet) - sleepy
tankhumay - sorry (condolence)
mitstaer'(et) - sorry (regret)
tsame (tsme'a) - thirsty
ayef (a) - tired
bari (bri'a) - well
mud'ag (mud'eget) - worried

Source: Ben-Adam, Justin, and Wistinetzki, Ilana. Hebrew Phrasebook. Lonely Planet, Victoria, Australia, 2007.

Sharon and Dayan

Moshe Dayan greets Arik and the commando teams on 12 December 1955 after the Alei Zait raid.

Source: Sharon and Chanoff.

Response to question #5, Kimmerling

Can the treatment of Palstinians by the Israelis in their newly-formed state be reasonably compared with the treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government?

This is a complex question, and has a good deal of depth to it. Intuitively it seems absurd, and even insulting to the Israelis, who to this day maintain the only true democracy in the Middle East. Without consulting mounds of details, documents, primary and secondary sources, and interviews, it seems almost inconceivable that an offer like the one Ehud Barak made to Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian people at the Camp David-Taba negotiations in 2000-2001 could reasonably be compared to the legacy of violations of U.S. Indian treaties that is taught to any middle school student today. Barak at this time offered the Palestinians:

• 94-96% of the West Bank;
• All of the Gaza Strip;
• A Palestinian state with Arab Jerusalem as its capital;
• Complete control of East Jerusalem and the Arab Quarter of the Old City;
• Control of the entire Temple Mount; and
• $30 billion in compensation for Palestinian people not moving to the new Palestinian state.

This was an unprecedentedly unfair deal - for the Israelis! Incredibly, Arafat dismissed it. Without overgeneralizing, it can safely be said that in this scenario alone, the Israelis viewed Palestinians much more favorably than the US government viewed Native Americans in the first stereotypical examples of mistreatment we think of, such as Wounded Knee.

Source: Dershowitz.

Kimmerling, cont'd - response to question #4

Was Unit 101 habitually excessive in its approach to operations?

There are arguments on either side of the fence to handle this question. Looking at it rather coolly with statistics provided by Drory, we can compare the number of Israelis killed to the number of infiltrators killed in the various incidents that took place in border actions during this period. They are:

1953, 54, 55, 56:

Israelis killed - 51, 18, 20, 39; Infiltrators killed - 125, 52, 24, 58.
Israelis wounded - 45, 47, 43, 67; Infiltrators captured/surrendered* - 239, 152, 27, 75.

* Infiltrator wounded figures unavailable.

Looking only at these statistics, the claim doesn't appear groundless. But there are subjective concerns as well. For example, the infiltrators were in some cases army-trained soldiers attacking civilians, as in the case of Susan Kanias and her two children being killed by a grenade tossed in their house in Yahud. If two men perpetrated this act, and they were subsequently killed in a retaliatory raid, is it simply two Palestinian casualties and three Israeli casualties? Is that the math most clear-thinking people would use? Probably not.

But back to the simple numbers. Drory lists additional Israeli casualties in the reprisal actions in another table: they add up to 164 for the four years in question. If this is taken as the hard number - 164 - and this is compared to the infiltrator casualty number of 259, then there is at least a grain of truth in Ben-Gurion's growling assessment of the Alei Zait raid: "Too successful!"

Source: Drory, Sharon.

Response to question #3, Kimmerling

Who started the incidents? Were they Arabs, or others?

Here a bit of imagination is required, though the framework is fairly evident. According to Ze'ev Drory, author of a work on the reprisal raids that emerged from his MA thesis at Tel Aviv University in the late 1980s, the shooting incidents occurring between 1953 and 1956 on Israeli borders occurred primarily on the Jordanian border (particularly in 1954-1955, when there were 153 incidents, or nearly 3 a week), and the Egyptian border a year later (319, or almost one per day). The total number of shooting incidents on these borders, as well as the Syrian and Lebanese borders, grew from 134 in 1953-54, to 301 in 1954-55, to 436 in 1955-56.

These are statistics, but behind every statistic is a story. It is doubtful that there was never a situation in all these incidents where a Palestinian was innocent of belligerent action and the Israelis made a mistake or were the first to show aggressive intent. And it's impossible to gather all of the data, or to make blanket assumptions about the ethnicity of those involved in these border actions. But perhaps one indicator is Israel's contemporary response to terrorist attacks. For example, in January and February 2003, there were no successful terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Over two hundred, however, were attempted by Palestinian terrorists. This number eclipses the 1953 figure for the number of border shooting incidents.

So what's the point? The point is that there is a very real resentment on the part of a number of people that translates into violent action, and this action occurs on a recurring basis with a minority of Palestinians. The stereotype of Islam is of explosive-carrying extremists calling for the destruction of Israel. Even though the majority of Arabs and Muslims are peace-loving and simply desire to live their lives, the radical behaviors of a few have - from long ago to now - fomented an environment rivaled by none in the earth for its martial clamor. And its desire for peace.

Sources: Drory, Dershowitz.

Response to question #2, Kimmerling

Who owned the land - Arab or Jew - at this time?

Few census records exist dating from the First Aliyah (1880) to the UN Partition of Palestine in 1947. Nonetheless, Benny Morris - an acclaimed Israeli historian known widely for his distinct pro-Palestinian bent - summarizes the matter as follows:

Historians have concluded that only "several thousand" families were displaced during land sales to Jews between the 1880s and the 1930s.

Even after 1930, the amount of Arab land available for sale well exceeded Jewish ability to purchase. A formal study of land purchases between 1880 and 1948 revealed that three-quarters of the plots bought by Jews were from mega-landowners (many of them absentee) rather than from those who worked the soil.

Finally, the groups of people existing in Palestine prior to the First Aliyah and the century prior rival those of today's metropolitan New York in their multitudinous ethinicities: Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Bosnians, Druzes, Circassians, Egyptians, Kurds, German Templars, Persians, Sudanese, Algerians, Samaritans, Tatars, Georgians, and those of mixed race.

It would be misleading and mendacious to say that no Arab was displaced by a Jew in the era of the reprisal raids. Neither would it be true to say that Arabs as a people had no substantial stake in the physical land of Palestine. But the intimation that the rank and file of Palestinians were just victims of the Israeli war machine is more than false - it's ridiculous. The strongest supporters of the Palestinian people acknowledge readily that three-quarters of the land sold to the Jews were from non-fellahin landowners, many of whom ruled the lands from Beirut or Damascus. And these lands were bought, not stolen. Very likely, many of their landlords never took the time to get a firsthand look at their holdings. Isn't that what advocates of a free market call a market inefficiency? Viewed in this light, it seems the worst criticism that could be levied against the Jews buying plots of malarial swamps in their own strange, ancient land was that they had the foresight and the faith to see their dream through with their sweat and blood. But not before they paid for the lands their own Bible told them would be their own forever. With money.

Source: Dershowitz.

Response to question #1, Kimmerling

1. Was the land that became the state of Israel predominantly Arab or Jewish at the onset of the reprisal raids and the formation of Unit 101?

According to UN estimates, there were 538,000 Jews and 397,000 Arabs in the land allotted to the Jewish state under the Partition Plan of 1947. Discounting the Negev, which is almost completely uninhabitable and uncultivatable, the Jews received less land than that allotted to the Palestinians. They also did not receive Hebron, the biblical city of refuge with a Jewish majority for over twenty centuries, and western Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest site on earth.

Source: Dershowitz, Alan. The Case for Israel. Wiley, Hoboken, 2003.

Commentary on Kimmerling

Kimmerling's comments on the scene unfolding in Israel during the creation of Unit 101 raise a few necessary questions.

1. Was the land of Palestine predominantly Jewish or Arab at the unit's founding?
2. Who owned the land - Arab or Jew - at this time?
3. Among the thousands of inciting incidents recorded during 1953-1956, how many were precipitated by Arabs, whether from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, or Lebanon?
4. Was Unit 101 habitually "excessive" in its carrying out of orders, as Kimmerling implies and states?
5. How comparable is the founding of the state of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians to the founding of the United States and its treatment of Native Americans?

These questions will be addressed in future posts.

Another view, III

The operation caused an international uproar and generated questions within important political and intellectual circles. At first, Israel tried to deny that the massacre was carried out by military unit and claimed that "angry border-area settlers" were responsible. But among the military, the wider population, and especially among the youth, it was considered a big success and raised national pride. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, hearing of the action, suspected that the young commander beloneged to a revisionist stream of Zionism, and called him for a talk. During the meeting, Ben-Gurion was very satisfied to discover that Sharon and his family belonged to the "correct" political stream (the Laborite one) and was enchanted by the young, brave, handsome, and bright officer - the embodiment of his vision of the Sabra, a healthy, Israeli-born Jew free from all the maladies of exile. From that time on, the "Old Man," as Ben-Gurion was known, gave Sharon his personal protection and maintained a special relationship with him, which Sharon used every time he got into trouble following one of his adventurous and unauthorized military operations.

Source: Kimmerling.

Another View, II

Unit 101's first assignment, in September 1953, was to expel the nomadic Bedouin tribes from the Negev desert. Traditionally, the Bedouins do not recognize state borders, and even after the 1948 War they moved freely between Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. The Israelis saw these unauthorized border crossings as a violation of their sovereignty over the territory (which was internationally contested during that period anyway). Unit 101's mission was accomplished efficiently and cruelly...
Among the dozens of raids executed by the 101 under the command of Ariel Sharon, two are inscribed in both Israeli and Palestinian history and memory. The first was the massacre at Qibiya. Qibiya was a Palestinian village in Jordan (the West Bank) between Latrun and Qalkilliya, which was attacked on October 15, 1953 as a reprisal for the murder of a woman and two children in the Israeli town of Yahud two days before. There had been about 130 Israeli civilian victims of this "border war," and public opinion demanded revenge. About forty-five houses in Qibiya were blown up with their inhabitants inside. Sixty-seven men, women, and children died. Sharon argued during the subsequent investigation that he ordered his soldiers to check every house and warn the inhabitants to leave, but the soldiers denied that they had had such an order.

Source:Kimmerling.

Another view

Not all sources - even Jewish or Israeli - are complimentary towards Arik and his commando unit. One of his harsher critics paints a more calculating and even cruel portrait:

"With (Sharon's) sharp political instincts, he soon discovered the secret that relatively junior field officers possess more actual power than higher-ranking officers who are far from the battlefield, not to mention civilian politicians who had little knowledge of military affairs yet adored the 'new Jewish warriors.' A field officer can inflame any border and blow any minor incident out of proportion. All such activities were nominally approved by the command as limited reactions to what Israel perceived as violations of the ceasefire agreements by the Arab states. However, in executing these actions, Sharon went far beyond he scope of what was ordered, planned, and accepted by his superiors. He explained these departures as the result of unexpected resistance by the enemy, unanticipated difficulties and obstacles on the battlefield, and the need to save the lives of Israeli soldiers or to avoid leaving behind the wounded and killed. The fact of the matter was that Sharon's expansive actions caused greater casualties - not only among the Arabs, but among Israeli soldiers as well. His practice of using provocations as a strategy - inciting Arabs and Jews to fight one another - became a major pattern of Sharon's conduct, one that he elaborated on and perfected as his career progressed."

Source: Kimmerling, Baruch. Politicide: Ariel Sharon's War Against the Palestinians. Verso, London. 2003.

Additional references for Unit 101

• The Israeli Commando: a Short History of Israeli Commando, 1950-1969. Tel Aviv, Madim.
• Sharon: An Israeli Caesar. Tel Aviv: Adam Publishers, 1985.
• Dayan, Moshe. Avnei Derech: An Autobiography. Tel Aviv: Dvir Publishing House, 1976.
• Eitan, Rafael, with Dov Goldstein. A Soldier's Story. Israel: Maariv-Modi'in Publishing House, 1985.
• Har-Zion, Meir. Pirkei Yoman (Memoir Chapters). Tel Aviv: A. Levine Publications, 1969.
• Margalit, Dan. Commando 101. Tel Aviv:Moked.
• Milstein, Uri. Milhamot Ha'tzanhanim. Israel: Ramdor Inc., 1968.
• Morris, Benny. Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
• Yenuka, Moshe. From Kibiya to the Mitleh. Tel Aviv: Bitan, 1967.

If I forget you, Jerusalem...

The biblical city of Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish longing since the Diaspora. The spirit permeating the soldiers of Unit 101 and the people who lived in the newly reborn nation of Israel at that time are reminscent of the ancient psalm:

Beside the streams of Babylon, we sat and wept at the memory of Zion,
Leaving our harps hanging on the poplars there.
For we had been asked to sing to our captors, and to entertain those who had carried us off:
"Sing," they said, "one of Zion's hymns."
How could we sing one of the LORD's hymns in a pagan country?
If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither.
May I never speak again, if I forget you;
If I do not count Jerusalem the greatest of my joys.
Remember, LORD, the sons of Edom on the day of Jerusalem,
How they said, "Down with her! Raze her to the ground!"
Destructive daughter of Babylon,
A blessing on the man who treats you as you have treated us,
A blessing on him who takes and dashes your babies against the rock.

- Psalm 137

Arik & Ben-Gurion

Sharon's legendary relationship with David Ben-Gurion began in the days of Unit 101 - and extended throughout the fledgling Israel's wars. At left, Ben-Gurion stands examining formations on the front during the 1971 War of Attrition, wearing a beret at Sharon's urging lest the enemy get a glimpse of his distinctive shock of white hair. In his own words, on the relationship between the two men at the outset of 101:

"Before long, however, I found that Ben-Gurion's affection was a curse as well as a blessing. At high-level meetings and get-togethers with the room full of generals and staff officers, he would call me up to be next to him. Sitting there, I would watch the generals come up to say hello to the old man and would feel embarrassed to hear him say, "Who are you?" or "What are you doing here?"...Without the wisdom to be more careful, I contributed in that period to the births of jealousies and anatgonisms some of which were to last for decades."

Sources: Life magazine, Sharon, Chanoff.

Additional Hebrew

mefakhed - afraid
sho'el - ask(a question)
matkhil - begin
kone - buy
melsaltsel - call (by phone)
ole - cost
ose - do
shote - drink
okhel - eat
masbir - explain
motse - find
shokhe'akh - forget
mekabel - receive
noten - give
holekh - go
tsarikh - have to
mekhapes - look for
meshalem - pay
sam - put
kore - read
khozer - return
omer - say
ro'e - see
mokher - sell
shole'akh - send
matkhil - start
loke'ach - take
mesaper - tell
metayel - walk
kotev - write

Hostage Negotations 101, III

The one-eyed general was pleased with the major's chutzpah, daring, and initiative. Scheinerman did not need to have things spelled out. Dayan liked operating in this theater of the unsaid, where orders were given in silence and plans were set in motion with raised eyebrows and imperceptible nods. Officers were given vast leeway, and the question of ultimate responsibility was ambiguous. Eventually, this modus operandi would sour their relationship: Success has many proud parents, but failure is frequently an orphan.

Source: Hefez and Bloom.

Hostage Negotiations 101, II

Scheinerman and Grover grabbed the two soldiers from behind, gagged them, and marched them back across the river, guns to their heads. Back on the Israeli bank, they cuffed their hands and threw them in the back of the truck. Grover hopped in after them, and Scheinerman drove like a wild man across the hills of lower Galilee toward Nazareth.

The truck pulled in to the city with first light. Scheinerman and Grover marched the Jordanians into the night officer's room and gave them tea and sandwiches. Two hours later, when Dayan entered his office, he found a note from Scheinerman on his desk. The Jordanians he had wondered about were waiting for the general in the holding cell, it said. Dayan called Scheinerman - by now shaved and spit-polished - to his office and asked for the whole story.

Source: Hefez, Nir, and Bloom, Gadi. Ariel Sharon: a Life. Random House, New York, 2006.

Hostage negotiations 101, I

In November 1952, Dayan summoned Scheinerman to his office in Nazareth. He wondered aloud whether it would be possible to kidnap two Jordanian soldiers. Perhaps, he thought, a pair of Legionnaires could be used as bargaining chips to secure the release of two Israeli soldiers who had been captured while training near the Jordanian city of Qalqilya.

Scheinerman answered with a knee-jerk affirmative, but said he'd have to look into the matter. As soon as he left the general's office, he rifled through maps in search of Jordanian positions within striking distance. The Sheikh Hussein Bridge, which crossed the meandering Jordan River, seemed a suitably vulnerable point. With nightfall, Major Scheinerman and Lieutenant Shlomo Grover of the northern reconnaissance team set off in a flatbed truck. They parked on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and made their way to the river on foot. On the opposite bank they saw two soldiers smoking cigarettes. The Israeli officers grabbed metal rods protruding from the bottom of the ruined bridge and made their way across the shallow river in silence. On the eastern bank, they crawled to the guards' hut and pulled out their pistols.

Source: Hefez, Nir, and Bloom, Gadi. Ariel Sharon: a Life. Random House, New York, 2006.

Hebrew phrases

khaval al hazman - describes an extreme situation (lit. waste of time)
sababa - great/cool
akhla - great/cool
ptsatsa/ptsatsot/pitsuts - excellent; beyond description; great (lit.a bomb, bombs, an explosion)
mashehu mashehu - used for something that defies description; words fail (lit. something something)
ba li hase'if - when you lose your temper because of something annoying
tered li mehakarakhat - when someone's nagging and you want them to stop NOW (lit. get off my baldness)
khapes oti basivuv - when you want to tell someone to scram and they're bothering you (lit. go and look for me in the street corner)
lama ma - used when someone asks you to do something you think is crazy (lit. why what)
katan ala'i - when someone apologetically asks a favor and you're more than happy to help (lit. it is small on me)
al hapanim - when it's looking gloomy, odds against you (lit. on the face)
neshama - appellation for someone wonderful, sweet (lit. soul)
yal'la bye - cooler version of goodbye
ba'asa - used when you're bored
akhi - used when you meet someone you like (lit. my brother)
kif - used when you meet a friend and shake their hand, used in response to friend's extending their hand

Source: Ben-Adam, Justin, and Wistinetzki, Ilana. Hebrew phrasebook. Lonely Planet Publications, Footscray, Victoria, Australia, 2007.

Hebrew words, II

ch - as in throat-clearing noise

cham - warm
chalav - milk
chom - heat
chodesh - month
chetsi - half
chika - waited
chuts - outside
chidush - renewal
chadash - new
chech - palate
chacham - smart
shlomcha - greeting (as in ma shlomacha, how are you?)
chemed - delight
chaval - pity
chut - thread
lechem - bread
ochel - food
echad - one
achal - he ate
shachav - he lay
achim - brothers
achot - sisters
oreach - guest
ech - how
shlomech - greeting (to a woman)
shelach - yours
namuch - short
matsliach - succeeds
toch - inside

Hebrew words

These are the first of a series interspersed throughout the narratives of Unit 101 that define a few Hebrew words. The words are transliterated, not directly put into Hebrew font.

li - to me
lo - to him
la - to her

lanu - to us
lev- heart
shalom - hello
sheli - mine
shelo - his
shelanu - ours
milon - dictionary
el - to
al - on
kol - all
gadol - big
meil - coat
kilkul - malfunction
klal - generalization
menahel - director
gidel - he raised
godel - size

Source (this and most future transliterations): Hebrew Basic Course, Barron's Educational Series, Hauppage, 1988.

Alei Zait, III

Gulliver's death reverberated throughout the entire IDF, from the paratroopers to the senior command. His death was in some ways the apotheosis of the era of new hope Arik and his bold commandos had breathed into the people of Israel, much as God had breathed into the dust before Him in Gan Eden at the dawn of the world:

"There was no mission that seemed too hard for him."

- Moshe Dayan

Source: Bar-Zohar, Michael, and the Israeli Ministry of Defence Publishing House. Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel. New York, 1998.

Alei Zait, II

Alei Zait became a symbol of the type of operation the IDF became famous for in the years to come: storied for its chutzpah, characterized by its lightning speed and the simultaneity of its attacks from differing directions and means (sea, air, and land); and unusually economical in its achievement of maximum results with minimal casualties.

The raid, conducted on the night of 11-12 December 1955, consisted of three cohorts: an airborne radio relay flying southeast over the northern half of the Kinnereth, four landing crafts, led by Yitzhak Ben-Menachem (called "Gulliver" by the men in the unit because of his great size) and followed closely by Sharon, and terrestrial forces at the north and south of the sea, led by Marcel Tobias and Meir Har-Zion, among others. The land forces were fortified by 120MM mortars in the south and cannon in the north.

Fourteen Syrian strongholds dotted the northeastern shore of the Galilee; of these, nine lay directly along the shore. All nine were attacked and the operation was considered highly successful. Sorrow for the men and for Sharon especially lay at the end of the operation, however. Gulliver, who had fought with Sharon at the Battle of Latrun and was a childhood friend of Arik's, was killed by a grenade while disembarking from his landing craft. Sharon made the decision to tell his parents the next day:

"When I arrived at the house, his parents had just gotten the terrible news a few moments earlier. While I talked to them, his mother cried continuously. "Arik, how did you let him die? You remember how he saved your life. You remember how he loved you. How he stayed behind and saved the wounded." In her grief she was talking about the Battle of Latrun in 1948, when Gulliver had heroically stayed behind with a machine gun covering Asher Levy's retreat with the Second Platoon. It hadn't been my platoon, but that didn't matter...now I had let him die. As she talked, she looked at me not with anger but with her eys full of anguish and disbelief. It was a look I would never forget."

Source: Sharon, Ariel, and Chanoff, David. Warrior: an Autobiography. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001.

Alei Zait, I

Throughout the year 1955, Syrian gun emplacements on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee fired randomly and haphazardly into the water, often damaging civilian fishing boats. By the close of the year, the Israeli government had decided that it had had enough, and entrusted one of its most ambitious missions to Arik and his commandos, now part of Paratroop Battalion 890. This was Operation Alei Zait (Olive Leaves), conducted on 11-12 December 1955.

The objective of the mission was to inflict deterrent damage on the gun emplacements and capture Syrian soldiers. The outcome of the mission was successful; the unit captured 30 prisoners and inflicted heavy damage on the enemy.

The raid was emblematic of many of Arik's operations, as he himself relates:

"By the time we arrived in the prime minister's office (the morning after the raid), Dayan looked very worried. I happened to walk in first; and looking up from his chair, Ben-Gurion caught my eye. 'So, Arik,' he said, 'how did it go?' 'I think it was succssful,' I said. There was a short silence while Ben-Gurion glowered at us. 'Too successful!' he said.

Source: Sharon, Ariel, and Chanoff, David. Warrior: an Autobiography. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001.

One goal, two more methods

The overarching goal of this blog is to acquaint the casual reader with Unit 101 and provide as comprehensive and interesting a history of it as possible. To achieve this goal, two additional methods have to be used.

1. Most of the source documents - particularly the source biographies and letters, news reports of the attacks, etc. - are in Hebrew. Since the average person reading this may not know how to read, write, speak, or understand Hebrew, ongoing vocabulary and links to Hebrew-learning resources will be included.

2. The action, conflict, and mystery surrounding Unit 101 are tailor-made for the movies. Because the reader might want to see or get an idea of how the materials from the lives of these soliders might be weaved into a story worthy for worldwide audiences, links to already-written movie scenes, a completed film script, and insight into ongoing revisions of that script will be included as well.

Ma avarech (How shall I bless him?)

This links to a song that is a traditional Hebrew hymn to those who have served and fallen in war.

(To cut and paste the link into your browser: Do this by bringing the cursor to the left of the text, highlighting it by holding the return key down as you arrow over the line, pressing CTRL + C, and then bringing the cursor up to your explorer bar at page top and pressing CTRL + V.)

http://www.youtube.watch/?v=BgYBqwBm8dU

Lyrics:

How should I bless him, with what should he be blessed?
Is it this boy? The angel asked (2X)

And he blessed him with a shining smile
And he blessed him with big seeing eyes
To catch every flower, animal and bird
And a heart to feel all he sees

How should I bless him, with what should he be blessed?
Is it this youngster? The angel asked (2X)

And he blessed him with legs to dance the whole time
And a soul to remember all the rhythms
And a hand that collects shells on the beach
And a listening ear for old and young

How should I bless him, with what should he be blessed?
Is it this young man? The angel asked (2X)

And he blessed his powers with experienced hands
To succeed in controlling the power of steel
And legs to dance along the journey
And lips singing the rhythm of command

How should I bless him, with what should he be blessed?
Is it this man? The angel asked (2X)

I gave him all that I could give
A song, a smile, and legs to dance with
A soft hand and a beating heart
And what else should I bless you with?

How should I bless him, with what should he be blessed?
Is it this boy, the soft young man? (2X)

This youngster, is an angel now
Will not be blessed any longer, not blessed anymore
God, God, God -
If only you blessed him with life!

Nebi Samuel, II

Continued, from Bar-Zohar's summary:

"Sharon did not understand why he had received this sudden summons to his battalion commander. Shaham's sphere of military responsibility included the area of Nebi Samuel. He was well aware that troubles for Israel were liable to originate there. Now he explained his idea to Sharon. He had requested permission from his superiors to carry out a deterrent action against Samueli, and had been given permission in principle. "We have to get there and blow up his house," he said, "and I want you to do the job."

Sharon muttered something about his exams, but Shaham cut him off. "A man has to choose between two options," he said, "to study the deeds of others or to leave it to others to study about his deeds."

A photograph of Nebi Samuel taken in the early 1900s. Sharon and his seven army friends conducted their first raid here, on the home of known Arab terrorist Mustafa Samueli in 1953.

Source: Wikipedia

Nebi Samuel

In the first week of August, 1953, 25-year-old Ariel Sharon was preparing for a history exam when he was interrupted and summoned to a meeting with his reserve battalion commander, Mishael Shaham. The tale is told by Michael Bar-Zohar in his Lionhearts:

(Sharon) thought it was going to be a discussion about administrative and logistics matters, but Shaham opened with the question: "Have you heard of Mustafa Samueli?"

"Yes," Sharon said. Despite his studies at the university, this young man, who had distinguished himself during the War of Independence, kept up with army material enough to know who Samueli was. This Palestinian Arab, a resident of the village of Nebi Samuel, had sworn to massacre a hundred Jews to avenge the blood of his brother, who had been killed in one of the battles in the War of Independence. Sharon even knew that Samueli had begun to carry out his threat and had already committed a few murders. Nebi Samuel was across the border, on the West Bank, which was under Jordanian rule. Samueli had only to sneak across the border (actually the 1949 cease-fire line), which was close to his village, carry out his bloody design, and retreat to his village with impunity.

Partial list of operations for Unit 101

Unit 101's operations (including those of Unit 202, which followed Unit 101, and Paratroop Battalion 890, which was born after Dayan merged the paratroops with the original Unit 101 commandos) included:

• Nebi Samuel - The operation to detonate Mustafa Samueli's house
• Hebron raid
• Jordanian Legion raid - Azun
• Kuntila
• Egyptian post at Kissufim
• Egyptian HQ - Gaza
• Alei Zait (Olive Leaf) - Syrian posts east of the Kinneret
• Khan Yunis
• Kibeyeh
• Sabha - capture of Egyptian compounds
• Kalkiliya

Source: Bar-Zohar, Michael, and the Israeli Ministry of Defence Publishing House. Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel. New York, 2002.

Meir Har-Zion

"The most outstanding paratrooper at the time was Meir Har-Zion. Meir came to us when Unit 101 was established. He had been a corporal in the Nahal who could not find peace there for his stormy spirit, for his desire to be active, for his belief that we must and could find a way to overcome the Arab terrorist activity. Within a short time he became the most daring fighter in Unit 101 and in the paratroopers, and an excellent scout, perhaps the best that the IDF has ever known.

He outshone the others by far in leadership qualities. His achievements in the battlefield were many. He commanded several operations himself, and played a major role in others. Meir Har-Zion became a symbol of a fighter in the paratroop units and in the army as a whole."

- Ariel Sharon

Source: Bar-Zohar, Michael, and the Israeli Ministry of Defence Publishing House. Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel. New York, 1998.

The commandos

The most prominent commando to emerge from Unit 101 - other than Sharon himself - joined the unit's ranks at the age of nineteen. He took his name from the mountain the ancient City of David stands on - Mount Zion.

"There are few fighters who have influenced the spirit and the fighting methods of a whole army over a period of several years. One of these fighters is Meir Har-Zion. Through his leadership, his determination, and his actions during the days of the courageous reprisal raids of the IDF during the 1950s, Meir Har-Zion contributed greatly to the revolutionary change not only in the army's approach to special operations, but also in its fighting spirit.

There are fighters who shine in one battle. There are legendary commanders who have excelled in one war. Meir Har-Zion is a fighter and a commander of an era. From 1953 to 1956 he fought as a soldier and as an officer, leading scores of operations, from which he returned only after they were sucessfully completed."

- Ariel Sharon

Source: Bar-Zohar, Michael (editor). Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel. Michael Bar-Zohar and the Israeli Ministry of Defence Publishing House, New York. 1998.

Aims of future posts

The background should by now be fairly evident for Israel in the early 1950s. Distended by swarms of largely illiterate, non-Hebrew speaking immigrants, many of whom were very young, the new nation found itself without a formal army capable of stemming the lawlessness and terror occurring daily on its borders. The solution was Unit 101. Questions to be addressed in future posts include:

• Who were the commandos in Unit 101?
• What operations did the unit conduct?
• What tactics, strategy, equipment, and training did the men learn, undergo, and use?
• What political and military aims did the operations have?
• What impact did they have on the citizens of Israel? Were the operations successful, both in the near-term and in the short-term?
• What impact did they have on the Arab population?
• How did they influence Zahal (the Israeli Defence Force) today?

Jewish and Arab populations at partition time

"By the mid-1890s - only a dozen years after the beginning of the First Aliyah - Jews were becoming an important part of the ethnic and religious mix of Palestine, especially in the area eventually partitioned by the United Nations for a Jewish state in 1947. At the time of the partition, there was a clear Jewish majority in the area (538,000 Jews and 397,000 Arabs, emphasis mine)...without any doubt, there was already a significant Jewish presence in that area (what is now central Israel) before the beginning of the twentieth century."

Source: Dershowitz, Alan. The Case for Israel. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2003.

Palestinian refugee camps (1993)

The UN partition plan to separate Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in 1949 dispossessed thousands of Palestinians from the homes they had inhabited before the mandate. Since the birth of the official state of Israel in 1948, many of the children of Ishmael have languished in camps in Tyre, Sidon and Beirut, to the north; along the West bank and the Gaza Strip; and, since 1967, in the interior of the land in Jordan. According to 2002 census figures, the total Palestinian refugee population was 3.9 million, over 1 million of whom live in camps.

The oldest of feuds

There are many arguments for the Arab-Israeli conflict, but the simplest is to compare three conversations.

Here is the first:

The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted company with him, 'Look all round from where you are towards the north and the south, towards the east and the west. All the land within sight I will give to you and your descendants for ever. I will make your descendants like the dust on the ground: when men succeed in counting the specks of dust on the ground, then they will be able to count your descendants! Come, travel through the length and breadth of the land, for I mean to give it to you.'

Genesis 14.14-17

Here is the second:

The angel of the LORD met her near a spring in the wilderness, the spring that is on the road to Shur. He said, 'Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?' 'I am running away from my mistress Sarai,' she replied. The angel of the LORD said to her, 'Go back to your mistress and submit to her.' The angel of the LORD said to her, 'I will make your descendants too numerous to be counted.' Then the angel of the LORD said to her:

'Now you have conceived, and you will bear a son, and you shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your cries of distress. A wild-ass of a man shall he be, against every man, and every man against him, setting himself to defy all his brothers.'

Genesis 16.7-12

Here is the third:

And the LORD was there, standing over him, saying, 'I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give to you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants shall be like the specks of dust on the ground; you shall spread to the west and the east, to the north and the south, and all the tribes of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants.'

Genesis 28.13-14

The first conversation is between God and Abram, the father of the Jews. The second is between God and Hagar, the servant of Sarai, Abram's wife. The third is between God and Jacob, Abram's grandson. The implications of each conversation reverberate throughout the ages in a boundless torrent of divinely-inspired wars over the same tiny patch of land. The Jews can say in truth that God here promised them the land. These are the implications of the first and third conversations. The Arabs, though promised many descendants, were not promised land. This is the implication of the second conversation.

The Arabs can trace their lineage back to Hagar, the servant girl who slept with Abram to give birth to Ishmael. The second conversation indicates that Ishmael will be defiant towards his brothers. Again, there is no promise of land being given to Hagar and her son from God. Is it any wonder he and his offspring are jealous?

The implications for this are broad. But the simplest interpretation is that Ishmael and his descendants - the Arabs - set themselves against Abraham's descendants by Sarah - the Jews. Why? Because the descendants of Jacob were promised the land, and the descendants of Ishmael weren't. Can Middle Eastern politics be this simple? The Book of Books seemingly makes it so.

Why all this history? Unit 101 was founded for this very reason: to protect the newly founded state of Israel from Arab terror. Sacred history reveals that Arab hatred is neither new nor mysterious: it is little more than an enormous and bloody case of sibling rivalry.

Background, III

"During the first four years following the establishment of the state of Israel, the main security problem was that of infiltration - from Jordan and Egypt. At first the aims of infiltration were theft or an attempt to take over and cultivate no-man's land. Israel was in danger of reverting to a state in which ownership was established by actual possession of the land and not in accordance with a signed document. In effect, the cease-fire borders were not final ones, despite their having been agreed upon and entered onto maps. Any lapse in the rigid watch kept upon the countryside would result in a mass reoccupation of the fields and villges by the Arab refugees. This was of course dangerous, since it opened up a possibility of penetration of Arab spies along with the farmers."

- Moshe Dayan, letter written in the 1970s

Source: Miller, Anita & Jordan, and Zetouni, Sigalit. Sharon: Israel's Warrior-Politician. Academy Chicago Publishers & Olive Publishing, Chicago, 2002.

Background, II

Perhaps the simplest summary of the pre-1950 situation in the fledgling Israel came from Moshe Dayan, writing about it in the early 1970s.

"(it was)...practically impossible to describe the tense atmosphere of the two-year-old Israeli nation. By the end of the War of Independence on March 1, 1949, the 650,000 Jewish inhabitants were in the midst of a wide-scale immigration absorption campaign. On the other side of the border, hundreds of Arab refugees...(waited) for the day they could go back into what were now Jewish cities. In the meantime, they lived in tents in the big refuge camps from which they had a clear view of the homes they had fled. Their hatred of the Jews now became a personal one."

Source: Miller, Anita & Jordan, and Zetouni, Sigalit. Sharon: Israel's Warrior-Politician. Academy Chicago Publishers & Olive Publishing, Chicago, 2002.

30 October 1955 following the Kuntilla raid. Standing (L-R): Meir Har-Zion, Ariel Sharon, Moshe Dayan, Danny Mat, Moshe Efron, Asaf Simchon. Seated: Ahron Davidi, Yaacov Yaacov, Eitan Rafael.

Source: Sharon, Ariel, and Chanoff, David. Warrior: An Autobiography. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001.

Border shooting incidents, 1953-1956

1953-1954;1954-1955; 1955-1956; 1956-1957.

Lebanese border: 3, 3, 0, 3.
Syrian border: 19, 59, 66, 69.
Jordanian border: 102, 153, 51, 102.
Egyptian border: 10, 86, 319, 199.

Total: 134, 301, 436, 293.

Source: Drory, Ze'ev. Israel's Reprisal Policy 1953-1956: The dynamics of military retaliation. Frank Cass, London, 2005.

Israeli casualties in acts of terror, 1953-1956

1953, 1954, 1955, 1956

(killed/injured by year)

Northern Command: 5/9, 2/4, 3/13, 3/12.
Central Command: 26/29, 9/5, 12/10, 10/15.
Southern Command: 20/7, 7/38, 5/20, 26/40.

Total: 51/45, 18/47, 20/43, 39/67.

Source: Drory, Ze'ev. Israel's Reprisal Policy 1953-1956: The dynamics of military retaliation. Frank Cass, London, 2005.

Terrorism statistics in Israel, 1953-1956

1. Violent acts of infiltrators (not including sabotage and mine-laying).

1953, 1954, 1955, 1956.

Northern Command: 20, 13, 11, 17.
Central Command: 49, 22, 18, 19.
Southern Command: 18, 28, 22, 50.

Total: 87, 63, 51, 86.

Source: Israel's Reprisal Policy 1953-1956: The dynamics of military retaliation, by Ze'ev Drory. Frank Cass, London, 2005.

Background

When The LORD brought Zion's captives home, at first it seemed like a dream;
then our mouths filled with laughter and our lips with song. - Psalm 126.1-2

God, do not remain silent; do not be unmoved, O God, or unresponsive!
See how your enemies are stirring, see how those who hate you rear their heads.

Weaving a plot against your people, conspiring against those you protect, they say,
'Come, we will finish them as a nation, the name of Israel shall be forgotten!' - Psalm 83.1-4

It is questionable if any other literature in the world so aptly sums up the pendulating emotions felt by the Jewish people in the late 1940s.

First came the dream: the Jewish people's return to the land conquered by Joshua and expanded by King David and King Solomon over three thousand years ago. The streets were thronged with students dancing the hora with British soldiers on the eve of the United Nations vote making Israel a nation. But the dream gave way to a stark reality for the people of Israel. David Ben-Gurion, watching the young women and men dancing and refusing to celebrate along with them, was chided and asked why he was so dour. He responded: "All this means is war."

He was right. The day after the official inauguration of the state of Israel, the five Arab nations surrounding the land declared war on the fledgling state. Though defeated soundly by the new nation, the Arab nations continued to wage war with acts of terror, especially along the borders of the new land. It was against this backdrop that Ariel Sharon - known as "Arik" to those close to him - was tasked with the protection of the borders.

Sources: O Jerusalem! Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1972.

Purpose

In July 1953, a 25-year-old student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem was preparing for an exam when he was summoned by his reserve battalion commander in the Israeli Defense Force. He was asked to blow up the home of a known terrorist across the Jordanian border. The operation failed. Not only had the terrorist left town, the charges didn't detonate and the team was detected by enemy hosts. On his return, the student told his commander that a special unit was needed for such operations, dismissing the matter summarily to return to his history exam. Returning to the safety of his books and papers, little did this student realize that not only would the IDF take his advice, but would within a month place him at the head of this new unit.

The student's name was Ariel Sharon, and the group he created was Unit 101.

Sources:
Warrior: An Autobiography, by Ariel Sharon and David Chanoff. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001.
Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel, edited by Michael Bar-Zohar. Warner Books and the Israeli Ministry of Defence Publishing House, New York, 1998.

"We cannot protect every water pipe from being blown up, nor every tree from being uprooted. Nor can we prevent the murder of workers in the orchards, nor of families in our beds, but we can exact a high price for our blood, a price too high for the Arab community, the Arab army, the Arab governments to pay."

- Moshe Dayan